In addition to what looks like plenty of stock in our local store, these monitors are also available for the same price from the Microcenter Web Store and able to be shipped anywhere in the US. This is unusual as generally, Microcenter sale prices, like their deep discounts on CPUs, aren't available through their online store.

Obviously, retailers are at their own discretion to discount products, so don't take this as guidance from NVIDIA, Acer, or ASUS as Microcenter seems to be the only retailer offering this price. Still, a 10% price discount on premium products like these, shortly after launch isn't exactly a good sign for sales numbers.

Even at $1,800, we would still say that these monitors are too expensive to recommend, but a 10% discount is nice on what we consider to be the highest quality PC gaming monitor on the market.

A long time coming

To say that the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has been a long time coming is a bit of an understatement. In the computer hardware world where we are generally lucky to know about a product for 6-months, the PG27UQ is a product that has been around in some form or another for at least 18 months.

Originally demonstrated at CES 2017, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ debuted alongside the Acer Predator X27 as the world's first G-SYNC displays supporting HDR. With promised brightness levels of 1000 nits, G-SYNC HDR was a surprising and aggressive announcement considering that HDR was just starting to pick up steam on TVs, and was unheard of for PC monitors. On top of the HDR support, these monitors were the first announced displays sporting a 144Hz refresh rate at 4K, due to their DisplayPort 1.4 connections.

However, delays lead to the PG27UQ being displayed yet again at CES this year, with a promised release date of Q1 2018. Even more slippages in release lead us to today, where the ASUS PG27UQ is available for pre-order for a staggering $2,000 and set to ship at some point this month.

In some ways, the launch of the PG27UQ very much mirrors the launch of the original G-SYNC display, the ROG Swift PG278Q. Both displays represented the launch of an oft waited technology, in a 27" form factor, and were seen as extremely expensive at their time of release.

Finally, we have our hands on a production model of the ASUS PG27UQ, the first monitor to support G-SYNC HDR, as well as 144Hz refresh rate at 4K. Can a PC monitor really be worth a $2,000 price tag?

We're one step closer to the official launch of G-SYNC HDR displays with the official announcement of a release window and pricing from ASUS for their PG27UQ 27" G-SYNC HDR Display. While the Acer Predator X27 was put up for pre-order last week and is set to ship on June 1st, this is the first indication of release details we have for the ASUS PG27UQ.

ASUS is touting the PG27UQ as the first "gaming monitor" to achieve VESA's DisplayHDR 1000 certification. While we've seen the announcement of another DisplayHDR 1000 monitor, the Phillips Momentum, it comes in at a TV-sized 43 inches.

DisplayHDR 1000 certification is achieved through the utilization of a 384-zone 1000cd/m2 peak brightness backlight as well as a quantum dot layer which allows the IPS panel to support 97% DCI-P3 and 99% AdobeRGB color gamut.

The PG27UQ also features ambient lighting controlled by their the ASUS Aura Sync software. A built-in ROG Light Signal will allow users to cast the ROG logo on the wall behind their monitor if they so choose.

The ASUS PG27UQ will be available in North America for a price of $1,999.99 starting in late June 2018.

While the announcement of a new 27-inch HDR display from ASUS leaked a bit early, the ROG Swift PG27UQ is now official, and Ryan spent some quality time with this impressive display at CES:

There is no shortage of lust-worthy specifications from the PG27UQ, with a 144 Hz refresh rate from its 4K panel, NVIDIA G-SYNC HDR with 384-zone local dimming from its direct LED backlighting system, 1000 nit peak brightness, and quantum dot technology for a wide color gamut.

Here are the specifications for the ROG Swift PG27UQ from ASUS:

Display Resolution: 3840x2160

Panel type: 27in (16:9) IPS panel

Backlight Type: Direct LED; dynamically controlled across 384 zones

High Dynamic Range: Yes, HDR 10

Refresh rate: Up to 144Hz

Brightness: 1,000cd/m² (peak)

Quantum Dot Technology: Yes

Input: DisplayPort 1.4 x2, HDMI x1

No specifics on pricing or availably have been announced yet.

(Update -- Scott Michaud @ January 6th, 11pm EST:ASUS has published a blog post claiming that the monitor will be available in Q3. OC3D claims that the price will be $1199, although that doesn't seem right and our anonymous sources have it closer to $1500.)